Thursday, December 13, 2012

It was a big week in the land of Taylor Poppy. We had all 8 grandparents in town for the big occasion. Taylor loved it! We had a nice chill week at home and what turned out to be a big bang of a birthday party at the end of the week. We hung out and relaxed in the beautiful weather by the pool. Come Saturday the day of Taylor's birthday the weather turned cold and we decided to have the party inside. It was a packed house.

She is right on track. Since birth she has quadrupled her weight and grown 10 inches.

This is our last Taylor Poppy blog. I hope you enjoyed it. If you want to keep up with us I'll update our family blog once a month at http://goteamshaw.blogspot.com. You can sign up for emails the same way on that site

To Our Dear Sweet Girl, Our big 1 year old! I love the little girl you are turning into. Words can not express how much we love you and all you do. It has been amazing to watch you grow. You are so fun and its really neat to watch you learn. It's been so cute seeing you learn to blow kisses in your own little way this last week. And give kisses when we ask you too. You are learning affection and being silly. I think you've had the silly part down for a while, the affection and cuddleing part is becoming more prevalent. That I'm thankful for. For a short time I was worried you wouldn't be a snuggler. But you are turning into quiet the cuddler and I just love soaking up every minute you'll cuddle with me. It is so sweet.I love how silly you are, I think this is one of my favorite things about you! One of your favorite things to do to entertain us crinkle up your nose. Then you laugh and do it again. We have numourus photos of this. You make so many funny faces. You started sticking your tongue out like a little lizard. You think this is kind of funny too. You also do this roll and flop maneuver then look at us and smile. You also love blowing bubbles and making zerbert sounds with your lips.We have many names for you. Mostly we call you Taylor Poppy, Poppy, baby boo, little boo boo, pumpkin spice, love bug, tay tay and sweet pea. Even though you started out so small you have always been super healthy. For this I am very thankful. I haven't had to take you to the doctor once for being sick. You are a tough girl! It's fun to watch you discover. You can move at a pretty good pace. You crawl on all fours and get faster by the day. You can climb up the stairs in our house from the 1st to the 3rd floor with ease. You haven't figured out how to go down them yet, but we'll work on it. You will pull yourself up to standing at your walker and push it around. You are rather pleased with your mobility. You are up & down and on & off the couch in a blink of an eye. You like pull all the books off my book shelve every day. You love to play peek-a-boo and find a game out of unloading the dryer or basket of bibs. You are very social. When you see other people you are so curious as to what they are doing and saying. You watch strangers and if they get close enough you offer a high five as a greeting. Then you try to have a conversation with them in your own little way. You are loud! hahaha...You say ma-ma (finally!) and dada. You make lots of other sounds. You can sign 'milk' and 'fan' and are working on 'all-done' & 'more'. When we ask you to clap and wave hi or good-bye you will. You love music. Anytime you hear a piano playing you stop what you're doing and look to find the source of the music. You will 'sing' along to the music while in your car seat. Daddy says you like hippy music. You like to dance. You shake your hands and move your booty to the sound of music when standing at your walker. You are a GREAT eater! You like almost everything. Your favorites are mama's pesto pizza, artichoke, blueberries, salmon, spinach, chicken, cheese, avocado and the list goes on. You drink from a straw and a sippy cup no problem. I love the way you will lay back on us and read a book at night before you go to bed. You enjoy flipping the pages, point and look at us to tell you what it is. You are so sweet when you go to sleep, now (those first 7+ months were a test). Mostly mom needed some training. You are amazing at going to bed now & going down for a nap. You don't even make a peep. I love how you lay your head on my chest and close your eyes as we sing to you before we lay you in your crib. I fall more in love with you every minute we spend together. I can't believe one whole year has already flown by. We feel so lucky to have you in our lives. You have brought a joy into my life I never knew existed. We love you more than you will ever know... (until you have kids), Love, Mama & Papa

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Another fun filled week in Arizona! From one end of the state to the other. Last weekend we went to Page and spent time with the family. We met up with my dad there. We had some nice visits with the Bucks & the Slaters. Taylor loves playing with her cousins too. She really makes herself at home where ever she is and will crawl, play or nap just about anywhere. We enjoyed spending time with my dad, aunts & uncles we can never get enough of it. It's always so nice to be home in Page.

Back to Phoenix. Grandma brought over a little early birthday present and Taylor showed off her pull-up skills. We had our monthly cousin lunch this week. Next month's cousin lunch will have a new addition... baby Elliott. We are anxiously awaiting his arrival.

Next off to Tucson we went for OZ's change of command ceremony. Taylor spent time helping daddy work and laughing with the Milners. She had more cousin time playing in Tucson. Then we packed it up and headed back to Phoenix to prepare for her big shin-dig this weekend.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Taylor's days at home consist of waking up, having breakfast, playing with toys, patty-cake, maybe a swim although the weather is starting to get a little colder, lunch, a nap, maybe two, running errands with mom, dinner, relax time, bath, reading and bed. But who are we kidding, we're hardly home.

This week we were off to Chicago to celebrate our friend Louis Popp's wedding. We enjoyed the long weekend with OZ and the beautiful Chicago fall weather. Taylor met new friends, Popp's niece & nephew, Brook & Lincoln. It was fun for them to get to play together. Taylor danced the night away at the reception and enjoyed delicious food all weekend long. It was a great trip and we look forward to getting back out there.

Once back home we were all tuckered out. Taylor is climbing and crawling up a storm. She can navigate up the stairs with ease, it's the plopping down I worry about. She loves to unpack the suitcase or anything for that matter. OZ likes to think of it as how she helps. She's a lot of fun and keeping me on my toes.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Playing catch up. Look at this girl go... and go... and go... she is a crawling machine. It was a family week. We started out in Sedona. Taylor has a great time playing with Grandpa. She had her first pancake... (yes Lisa, we fed her dough! haha) She enjoyed listening to Hayden read, then tried to do some reading of her own. One of her favorite things to do in my room is to pull all my books off the bottom book shelve. The other is to pull my shoes out in my closet.

Saturday was my cousin Genny's baby shower. Taylor (just like the rest of us) can't wait for her new cousin Elliott to get here. A family dinner outing and game of big booty while we waited for our table was just what this girl needed to wear her out. Sunday we had brunch with Uncle Poppy & Gomes. As you'll see in the pictures a very intense game of patty-cake pursued. Then off to my cousin Brad's to see my cousin Sam & her little Ayden while they were in town. Taylor loved playing with Ayden. And I don't think I'm letting the cat out of the bag at this point... one more cousin soon to come!!! :) Last but not least a little Macayo's with Grandma to finish off the week.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Our sweet girl is getting so big. She's very social, loves to interact with others. She'll mimic sounds and facial expressions for as long as one will sit and play with her. She's making motorboat sounds and laughing. She will bump noggins with you as a sign of affection. Taylor likes to play with her toys, crawl around chasing momma and new this week ... she can clap. She will even do it on command. She's got a mean crawl on all 4's. She's enjoying tons of new foods like grilled asparagus, artichokes, salmon, cauliflower, hollandaise.

We had a busy weekend. OZ came home from Virginia this weekend. We all hung out with our friends that were in town Holly, Ike, Steph and Gunni came to visit. We went swimming and bbq'ed. Taylor loves seeing other kids and watching Gunni run around and swim. Taylor can't wait to be able to keep up with him. She is starting to navigate the stairs. She can pull herself up a stair or two. We hung out with Holly & Kelly for a few. They introduced Taylor to cotton candy. Funny that she wasn't a fan. We drove to Tucson for a wedding. My cousin Debra got married and Taylor enjoyed the bubble blowing.

This week we went to Dewey to see our friends Randal & Trisha before they moved back east to Maryland. We had a nice lunch, a nice little hike, and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon. Then onward to Sedona to visit Grandpa & Marilyn. Taylor played blocks, looked at pictures and entertained us playing with Grandpa.

Also new this week she will wave good-bye. There may have been a possible mama in there this week. And OZ thinks she's learning German since she will say, Nine, repeatedly. Bye-bye for now.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Taylor played with her little friend Cameron. They had a great time sharing toys and crawling up and down the nap nanny onto the couch. We went to 2 farmers markets with the Cranks on Saturday and picked up some delicious veggies and cheese.

We had our friends the Surakus's in town, which always includes a trip to Oregano's with a crew and some sort of house project for Randal. This visit was no exception. We walked down to Oreganos for a wonderful dinner, had a nice walk across the bridge on Tempe Town Lake, a swim to cool down in the evening and Shawbucks coffee in the morning (ok it's a blend of Surakus girls coffee method, with honey - thank-you Marilyn, and Nespresso steamed & frothed half & half - thank-you Nancy) and a garage project to end the weekend. Thank-you guys for visiting!

We had 2 cousin lunches, lucky us! We did our monthly lunch with Timmy & Ryan and a follow up lunch with Timmy, Lonnie & Jason at Garcia's.

We stopped by my mom's for an afternoon and Taylor crawled all over the house. She had a great time playing with Grandma who gave her lots of paper to crinkle and toys to play with.

To end the week the Marr's arrived! Yahoo! Taylor so badly wants to chase & follow Gunni all over, he's just so quick. And very protective! He doesn't want the baby to get hurt.

We started reading Dr. Seuss's, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Taylor gets a kick out of it when I say that, rhyme fast, and she loves flipping through the pages. She giggles through it.

Still no 'ma ma ma ma'. If I ask Taylor to, "Say Mama", she says "Dada". She gets very excited to see dada on the phone. She wants to eat what ever I am eating and do what ever I am doing. If it's folding the laundry, she wants to unfold, make the bed, she wants to unmake the bed, put clothes in the dryer, she wants to take them out of the dryer. She either feels like she's helping or 'cool, I get to play with this too'. She's a very funny little girl. I love when she laughs. It's the best thing on earth.

Monday, October 1, 2012

We spent the first half of the week in Virginia with OZ. We'd never been to Virginia so we decided to check it out. We checked out the Battlefield at Petersburg which is adjacent to where OZ is staying at Fort Lee. We looked at the canons and walked through the visitors center to view some of the Civil War history. OZ was excited to take us for a Wawa sandwich (sort of like a subway). We checked out the Museum of the Confederacy and the Confederate White House. We drove down Monument Ave to see the monuments/statues in the middle of the street of Grant & Lee and Arthur Ash. Taylor popped a little tooth on the bottom this week, which probably is the reason for our longest night ever with her while we were in Virginia. We took a nice drive through the country passing many peanut farms on our way to Newport News. On the way back we drove through Williamsburg and stopped for dinner. We wish we would have spent the day there. Maybe one day we'll get back.

Made it back to Phoenix to a flooded garage. Thank-God for my cousin Michael! He turned off the water and replaced the water expansion tank... and while he was at it, hooked up the water softener. Yep, he's Amazing!

It's great to be home. Now we're just ready for Papa to be home with us. Soon.